Biography

Serap Aksoy, PhD, came to Yale as a postdoctoral fellow in 1982 and worked her way to Professor in 2002. From 2002-2010, she headed the Division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. She serves as editor in Chief of the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and chaired both the NIH/NIAID Vector Biology Study Section (2010-2012) and the WHO/TDR, Molecular Entomology BL5 (2008-2012). Dr. Aksoy's lab aims to understand the biology of host-pathogen interactions--in particular in tsetse flies, which transmit African trypanosomes and harbor multiple symbiotic microbes. A graduate of Vassar College (BA) and Columbia University (PhD), Dr. Aksoy has lectured around the world, and maintains ongoing collaborative research programs with the National Livestock Research Institute (NaLIRRI) and Gulu University in Uganda, and Biotechnology Research Institute (BRI) in Kenya. The laboratory at Yale focuses on the development of novel methods to ultimately reduce tsetse populations in the field, or to reduce their ability to transmit disease. Studies in Uganda focus on the epidemiology of Sleeping Sickness disease. Together with BRI and her colleagues at Yale, Dr. Aksoy has been involved in an international training program to expand research capacity in tsetse-transmitted diseases in east Africa. As the EIC of PLOS NTDs, she works to build research and publication capacity for global neglected tropical diseases.

National Science Foundation Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research (1977)

International Activity

Human African Trypanosomiasis Control
Uganda (2012)

Develop innovative vector control for HAT

Human African Trypanosomiasis Control
Uganda (2012)

Develop innovative vector control for HAT

Tsetse Transmitted African Trypanosomiasis
Kikuyu, Kenya (2011)

Tsetse transmitted Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) has re-emerged and poses a major public health crises in Sub Sahara. There are no vaccines and efficacious drugs for control of parasite infections in the mammalian host. In contrast, control of the vector insect tsetse populations can...

This Fogarty International Research Collaboration award (FIRCA) proposal is on tsetse fly population genetics in order to support the ongoing Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) control activities in East Africa. The parent grant (NIAID R01Al068932, 01/01/2008 to 12/31/2012) addresses the molecular...

Trypanosome, Tsetse
Kenya (2010)

Tsetse Transmitted African Trypanosomiasis (Africa)

Trypanosome, tsetse
Kenya (2010)

Molecular Aspects of Tsetse and Trypanosome Transmission

trypanosome, tsetse
Kenya (2010)

New Strategies for African Trypanosomiasis Control

Tsetse
Kenya (2010)

Evolutionary Genetics of Tsetse and its Symbionts

Tsetse, tryopanosomiasis
Kenya (2010)

Tsetse Fecundity Reduction for Trypanosomiasis Control

Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenya (2010)

Tsetse - Trypanosome Interaction

Education and Training
China (2010)

Li Foundation Yale-China Training Program

Genetics - Yale-Fudan Collaborative Program
China (2008)

The Yale-Fudan Collaborative Program is a co-training program between Yale and Fudan University. Within this program, pre- and postdoctoral students from the Genetics Department of Fudan University conduct research at Yale for a two-year period and return to China to receive their degrees from...

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